Today marks the start of National Vegetarian Week. In the wake of the horse meat scandal earlier this year no one was surprised when sales of meat free food went up. For some people moving away from meat was a temporary thing, for others it is a more permanent choice.
‘It’s not rocket science – it’s surprisingly simple’ is this years slogan and the Vegetarian Society are focusing on raising awareness of what vegetarians eat. Liz O’Neill, Head of Communications at the Vegetarian Society, says, “going vegetarian is fun, tasty and seriously rewarding, and there’s never been a better time to enjoy a meat-free lifestyle. Our world is complicated enough and this one surprisingly simple change will benefit your health, the environment and animals. It’s not rocket science, it’s just delicious.”
I became vegetarian in February after pondering for quite some time whether to take the plunge or not. Since I adopted a more mindful attitude to life I could no longer ignore the unease I have had around killing animals for food for a long time. Ironically, despite several of my closest friends being vegetarian, one over bearing school friend who embodied every stereotype of joyless, lettuce munching zealot and an even worse vegan university acquaintence was enough to put me right off the idea for 20 years. So I’m not going to preach or browbeat I promise.
Instead I am going to share a different vegetarian recipe every day this week. It has never been easier to be vegetarian. Food has moved a long way since beanfeast and nut cutlets seemed the only options available. Some of my recipes include meat substitutes like quorn while others just celebrate the joy of veg.
If the horse meat scandal taught us anything it is that we can’t always trust the labels on our food. Vegetarians already knew that just because something doesn’t seem to include meat it doesn’t follow that it’s actually vegetarian.
Vegetarians, as defined by the Vegetarian Society, do not eat any meat, poultry, game, fish, shellfish or crustacea or slaughter by-products. The seemingly oddest things aren’t veggie. My haribo habit needed knocking on the head anyway. For more information about being veggie, going veggie, the discounts available to members in all sorts of places and more visit https://www.vegsoc.org/
On with the food! I thought I’d go straight for the scary stuff and pit my wits against….. tofu! I know, tofu, doesn’t have a good rep somehow and I have only ever tried to cook with it once before. In 2002. It was vile, slimy and I did not feel at all virtuous for having eat it. These kofta’s however are really lovely, very filling and have a texture similar to a firm (and very tasty) omlette. I found the recipe on the society website. Even Mr FeeHutch, who experienced the tofu terror in 2002 with me, liked these. Enjoy!
Turkish Tofu Kofta
Ingredients:
2 slices of seeded wholemeal bread whizzed into crumbs (I had wholemeal and just added a tablespoon of mixed seeds in)
250g of drained tofu
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
2 tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon of allspice
1 teaspoon of dried mint
2 gloves of garlic
2 beaten eggs
OK this really is surprisingly simple.
After you have whizzed your bread and seeds in the food processor pop them in a bowl. Pop the tofu in the food processor and blitz that until it is chopped into fairly small pieces, it’ll only take a couple of seconds.
Add that to the bowl and mix in everything else, all the spices and eggs.
Mix it really well and then take about 1 tablespoon of mixture at a time and roll into balls.
My balls were a bit bigger and that did make them a bit harder to turn when cooking. The mixture is very soft but does retain the shape if you are gentle when handling it. At this point the kofta’s can be refrigerated and cooked later in the day if required. I decided to pop them on a plate and chill for 20 minutes before cooking.
Fry the kofta’s in vegetable oil, turn them every couple of minutes to ensure all sides are brown and then place on kitchen roll to absorb an extra oil. As suggested I served them with some spicy tomato sauce and on a bed of rice (brown with peppers and courgettes). I heated a jar of salsa in the pan I used to cook the kofta and a pack of microwave rice – simple.
